I Got the Hot Hand

Anyone who hasn’t signed up for my Community Break might want to consider doing so, because I’m starting a hot streak.

I was at Target and Wal-Mart on Friday during lunch looking for Heritage, Opening Day, NBA Stickers and/or Garbage Pail Kids Series 2.  I had no luck out there in the suburbs (haven’t looked in the city yet), but I needed to buy something.  So, I found a repack box of 16 packs for $20 that I figured I’d use for APTBNL and bonus cards in trades.  And I got a Wal-Mart 2011 Topps blaster.  Check out what I got in there.

60 Years of the same inserts over and over again Original Back

Not a big deal, right, but still not expected blaster fodder.  If Topps would have just waited to do this insert set this year instead of last year, it would have made people so much happier.

In 1969, Ichiro had 214 hits for the Pilots

Too often, blaster patches are less than semi-stars.  To get one of the elite players in the game was a nice surprise.  My biggest complaint isn’t that these patches exist at all, because I think they look nice when done well like the Pilots logo here.  No, my biggest complaint is that they can’t utilize space very well.  Look at all that empty background.  Couldn’t there be a picture of the stadium or skyline in there or something?  Why is Ichiro so smushed on the side?  It looks like he’s leaning back just to make it in the card at all.  If anyone has a Maddux patch to trade for this, that would be fantastic.

Jeter riding an invisible elephant, telling it to go "that a'way"

I don’t typically have good luck with the retail parallel cards.  I keep hoping to find a Dempster, Marmol or Wood, but only get Pirate and Royal bench players.  But not today, my friends.  Not today.  I got the Captain.  Still no Dempster, Marmol or Wood, but I got a legitimate superstar of the game at least.  But all of this is just build up for what was in the same pack as the Jeter.

Oooo, fake shiny!

When I initially saw this card in the black parallel pack, I thought “Oh, come on!  You gave me a freakin’ regular card in here?  It’s bad enough there are inserts in the pack to begin with, now you have to put a normal freakin’ base card in the mix?  Someone must pay.  Here go hell come!”  Then I looked at it and saw that little sparkle on the button and it all made sense.  And I wasn’t so mad anymore, because I knew that if no one wanted to trade for this, that I could almost pay for the blaster with this card alone, thus rewarding my addictive behavior.

So, not bad, right?  I got pretty lucky there, but that’s not the end of it.  You see I also bought a box of 2008 UD Documentary from Dave & Adam’s (since I need a bunch of Maddux, Wood, Dempster and Thomas cards from the set, and again I may use it as bonus material in trades).  One pack in, I get the one per box auto.

Good ol' "N2' MJ"

Yeah, I know. Nothing spectacular there.  My Wal-Mart black border pirate luck transferred to the Documentary box.  I was thinking “Oh well, I didn’t buy it for the auto anyway.”  About a row of packs later I see this sucker.

Dont' look so enthusiastic, Corey. You don't want people to think you're having fun playing baseball for a living or anything.

Again, not the best player in the world, but beating the odds and getting 2 autographs in a box of crappy Documentary that cost about $12 is pretty cool.  But we’re not done yet.  You see, on the third to last pack I saw a sleeve upon opening.  What the hell is that all about?  I’ll tell you what it’s about.

I'm the Key-master, are you the gate keeper?

3 autographs in a documentary box?  Unheard of!  The Jimmy Key is an On-Card autograph which I believe is originally from the 2003 Upper Deck Yankee Signature set.  This is a buyback used as part of the Yankee Stadium Legacy promotion Upper Deck forced down our throats in all of 2008 products.  The sleeve that was in the pack housed the buyback announcement and the auto.  How cool is that?

So, yeah.  I’m feeling pretty lucky right now.  You guys might want to consider taking advantage of that if you haven’t already.  You never know, I may continue to beat the odds in a week when I bust open that Fleer!

By the way, all the cards I’ve shown here are for trade.  Feel free to inquire within.